Winnetka event honors veterans

November 12, 2013|By Brian L. Cox, Special to the Tribune

Vietnam War veteran Urban Mlyares and his guide dog, Crockett. Mlyares, blinded when his platoon was ambushed in 1967, was a keynote speaker during a Nov. 11 Veterans Day observance event at the Winnetka Community House. (Brian L. Cox, Chicago Tribune)

Vietnam War veteran Urban Mlyares became a successful businessman after returning from combat in the late 1960s. Over the years he started many businesses and went on to be named entrepreneur of the year in various publications.

Mlyares success might not be that surprising — except for the fact that he was presumed dead after his platoon was ambushed in Vietnam. All the soldiers under Mlyares's command on that horrible day were killed in the ensuing firefight, and Mlyares spent two days in a body bag before a combat medic realized he was just unconscious. Mlyares was also blind.

Now 66, he was a keynote speaker during Winnetka's Veteran Day Observance at the Winnetka Community House.

"When you're blind you're considered 'catastrophically disabled,'" Mlyares said. "There's no compromise in a sighted world when you can't see. It's a challenge."

The Nov. 11 event in Winnetka was held to honor all veterans, but this year there was a special focus on blind veterans and the work that the Winnetka-based Hadley School for the Blind is doing to assist soldiers blinded in combat and older veterans who are losing their sight due to age related illnesses, said Philip J. Hoza, a retired U.S. Army captain.

Hoza was hospitalized after he was shot in the leg while serving in Vietnam in 1967. The Winnetka resident said that 10 days later, the entire crew of the helicopter he had flown in until he was wounded was killed.

"If I hadn't been shot in the leg I would have been flying with them, obviously, and I would not have had a family," he said. "I've had a good life."

"I feel a kind of obligation to help the people remember the veterans," he added. "We have combat veterans who are blind from roadside bombs or whatever, but one of the things we also have are the older veterans who are losing their eyesight."

The Hadley school for the Blind has been working with veterans since World War I. In 2005 the school launched the "Blinded Veterans Initiative" after statistics showed that an alarming number of soldiers returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan were blinded or had sight related injuries, said school President Charles Young.

"It was some 17 percent of the injuries," said Young, also a veteran. "We upped our effort to reach out and serve these veterans all entirely free and with the support of this community."

Despite a chill in the air and the first snow fall of the season, more than 100 people turned out for the event, including 16 blinded vets from the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital Home.

Mlyare, who lives in San Diego, said he has been successful in business and life because he did not dwell on his blindness and said that when people ask him how he became so successful, he tells them that it is in part due in part to his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which affects many combat veterans.

"If I didn't have PDST I would never have gone into business," he said. "People with PTSD have all the good attributes that an entrepreneur should have."

"I'm a workaholic, I was so excited about the business I couldn't sleep at night," he said. "I like to be in control. I don't like people looking over my shoulder telling me what to do — except for my wife, of course."

"We're set in our decision making," he added. "If we're going to do something we do it. We have all the same attributes. We just have to learn how to shift that negative of PTSD that perceived mental illness into a positive aspect of our life and work on it."